“Alright,” Lily said, looking at her watch. “I think we’ve got about thirty minutes to grab some food before we need to catch the Tube to be back to the Leaky Cauldron by nine.”
“Catch the what?” Sirius said as he led the way out of the Science Museum. “Tell me that doesn’t involve being sucked through the piping system.”
“No,” Lily laughed. “We’ll just be taking that underground train again. It’s the fastest and easiest way to get around London.”
Walking behind them, James grabbed the door after Lily and said, “You mean besides flying or Apparating? I don’t know how you think using a train that stops every five seconds is fast.”
“Well, if you think about it, it’s pretty amazing what Muggles have come up with to function in society without having the option of just being able to wave a wand and say an incantation to get what they want,” Lily countered. “Just think how much it took to figure out how to make a device that allowed you to talk to someone on the other side of the planet just as if he was standing right next to you. Or the train system “ building the tunnels and the trains themselves, and making sure they all run on time and connect at the right spots without getting in each others’ ways “that must have taken a while.”
They made their way down the steps and into the parking lot, passing a group of women enthusiastically exchanging greetings.
“Carrie is that you?” one of them holding a large, green embroidered bag exclaimed.
“Sure is. I told Ethel I was coming. I finally got Frank to agree to manage the house without me for one day. It only took me 27 years to do it!” the shortest one replied before turning to another woman approaching the group. “Emmeline Vance! It’s been too long since we’ve stirred up trouble together. Those were happier days.”
“Yeah, you know I still can’t figure out how they get that great big arrow-pain thing up into the air and keep it there,” James remarked, pulling Lily’s attention away from the ladies. “Seems like a lot of work compared with flying.”
“Do the Muggles have a novel way of getting dinner or can we do that regularly? I’m starving,” Sirius said as they weaved their way between parked cars.
Lily thought for a moment before answering, “I think there’s a deli a couple of blocks from here. We can go there.”
All in all, it hadn’t been a bad night. After splitting from Vernon and her sister, Lily had surprisingly begun to enjoy herself. She had given James and Sirius a quick walk around of Leicester Square, taken them on their first ride on the London Underground followed by a brisk walk through Hyde Park and the Kensington Gardens, and shown them the Science Museum, hoping to raise their impressions of Muggles. Granted, she probably had come off as abrupt and uptight for the first half of the trip, but that was probably because she had been. Petunia putting her down for being a witch, even in front of friends from school, was nothing new, but something about today’s rant had been more infuriating than all of them put together. She told herself that it had nothing to do with the fact that this time it was in front of James Potter, because she really didn’t care what James Potter thought of her, but somehow she still felt a bit on the defensive side around him.
Once they had gotten off the Underground and she realized James and Sirius had forgotten all about it and were now too absorbed in the sights around them to care that her sister didn’t approve of magic, her mood had lightened considerably. She found herself laughing at the comments James and Sirius made about the other pedestrians they thought looked so strange but looked completely normal to her. And though she did have to put up with a couple of jibes from James about how much more superior magic was to Muggle inventions, not once did she have to turn down an invitation to go out with him. There were several moments when they were in the Science Museum however, when Sirius mysteriously left the room, leaving her and James alone and usually standing a little too close to each other to look at the same piece.
Right at that moment in fact, Lily realized just how close James was walking next to her. Frowning and picking up her arms and folding them, she picked up her pace a bit as well to catch up with Sirius who was a couple of steps ahead of them.
They were almost to the end of the parking lot when they heard a shout behind them. More screams followed before they could even turn around, and when they did, the sight that greeted them seemed almost absolute chaos. Clearly terrified people were pouring out of the Museum.
“Let’s see what’s up,” Sirius said and charged toward the building. James took off after him, and Lily followed.
When they were almost to the doors James stopped two teenagers they had seen inside earlier and asked them what was going on.
“The things, they’re coming to life,” one stuttered out. “It’s liked they’re possessed.”
“One of the displays of an airplane came to life and attacked someone when we were on the third floor,” the other boy said. “And the same thing was happening on the ground level when we tried to get out.”
“Thanks,” Lily yelled over her shoulder as she dashed after James and Sirius who had already whipped their wands out and were pushing counter-stream through the crowds of people trying to get out of the museum. Once inside they found they had more to dodge than just people. The atrium was filled with small inventions that had come to life and were wreaking havoc on the people trying to escape.
Sirius nearly tripped over one of the small model cars that were zooming in between the legs of people, but James grabbed him before he could fall. They heard rather than saw explosions coming from the Space Center straight ahead of them and moved through the throng of people towards the commotion.
They were nearly to the Space Center’s entrance when a rocket the size of a table lamp came shooting towards them. James spread his arms out and forced Lily and Sirius to the ground. Twisting around so quickly that she cracked her back, Lily pointed her wand towards the speeding rocket and cried, “Immobulus!” stopping it before it could reach any of its intended victims.
The three immediately scrambled back up again and ran into the darkened rooms that displayed the inventions of space technology. Through the smoky haze that enveloped the long room and the clusters of sparks issuing from a couple of light fixtures, they could see three figures moving around. One was performing a spell on another similar-sized rocket as the one that just nearly missed them, while the other two were concentrating on the huge rocket ship that spanned the length of the room.
Before the one could get any further with his spellwork, Sirius shot a spell of his own at him that sent him reeling back against a case of glass. Sirius sprinted towards the man’s fallen form before the man had a chance to regain consciousness. Strangely enough, the other two spellworkers at the end of the room seemed not to have noticed the three’s intrusion.
James and Lily made to go after Sirius but were thrown against opposite walls when the back end of the large rocket exploded as if the ship were taking off, emitting a powerful blast of air, followed immediately by huge flames. More to shield herself than to defeat the flames coming out of the rocket, Lily spouted off an Aguamenti charm from the end of her wand. It kept the flames nearest her at bay but did not solve the larger problem.
“We’ve got to do a Severing Charm to get the charged-up back end off of the rocket before it blasts off, and we’ve got to do it all at once!” James yelled from the other side.
“On the count of three,” he yelled. “One. Two. Three!”
In unison James, Lily, and Sirius shouted, “Diffindo!” and separated the back end of the rocket ship from the rest of it. Almost simultaneously, the bottom of the rocket gave a great spurt of energy, catapulting itself through the ceiling and bringing part of the rocket up with it. Chunks of plaster, tile, and metal rained down on them as the rest of the rocket swung precariously in its holdings before tipping nose-down and touching the floor with its point.
“Alright, Evans?” James shouted as he ran over to her once the majority of the debris had come down and the fires started by the explosion were put out.
“I’m fine,” she said, though she had sustained a few minor burns. From the reddish streaks on his face it looked like James hadn’t been completely safe from the flames either.
“Those two people went into the next room,” Sirius barked from his position a little farther down the room. “I couldn’t see exactly who they were in the light from the blast, but I could tell they were Death Eaters.”
“That one’s waking up,” Lily warned as the Death Eater Sirius had thrown into a glass case started groaning and shifting around, dislodging some of the debris that had toppled onto him. They raced towards him with their wands raised, but as soon as he saw them coming, he fired a wordless spell at them. Sirius was slammed backwards, knocking James and Lily down with him. They were halfway up from the ground when he Disapparated.
“Come on!” Sirius barked in frustration and ran towards the room the two Death Eaters had disappeared into, hopping around bits of ceiling and slipping carefully around the nose of the rocket that nearly blocked the doorway. What followed was a small, grey room with more glass cases of inventions that marked the beginning of the “modern day” inventions such as automobiles, locomotives, ships, planes, and the like.
Sirius remembered that the two passageways on either side of the opposite wall doubling as a staircase led to a larger, brightly lit space that housed the bigger inventions, while the staircase went up to the second floor. Had the two Death Eaters gone up or forward? Lily and James caught up to him as he debated. Hearing a crash from beyond the opposite wall, they sprang towards the passage on the left but paused in the short span of marble hallway before entering the room.
From what they could see the next room showed signs of the earlier chaos they had passed in the lobby. Several display cases were broken leaving glass everywhere, a number of small cars were rolling about the floor of their own will, and a lone model airplane zoomed around above them.
Of slight more importance to James, Sirius, and Lily though, was the life-size antique train engine rushing towards them. Lily smashed herself against the wall while James and Sirius leapt the other way. A communal sigh of relief followed as the locomotive crashed into another display and broke down. Before the last pieces of glass had fallen however, another rumbling sound was heard.
“Watch out!” Lily screamed as a buggy careened around the corner and made a beeline for James and Sirius.
Just in time they shouted in unison, “Impedimenta!” stopping the old automobile from ramming into them.
“They don’t want to play with our new toys, Amycus!” a female voice cried from the other end of the room, surprising them all and revealing a pudgy looking Death Eater.
“That’s not very nice. We just wanted to be friends,” Amycus replied as he popped out from behind a pole a little closer to them with a lopsided smile on his face.
“We can take them easily,” Sirius whispered as he glanced at the two Death Eaters leering at them.
Amycus giggled wheezily and said, “Don’t you want to be friends with the Dark Lord?”
“Never!” shouted James and shot a nonverbal spell at him. But the Death Eater was too fast and blocked it with a shield charm.
“Tarantallegra!” he cried, pointing at James
“Stupefy!” Sirius shouted at the same time. The Death Eater flew backwards and hit another invention while James danced uncontrollably.
Lily quickly said the countercurse, stopping James before he danced into the buggy.
Suddenly Sirius shrieked out in pain and fell to the floor writhing.
“If you can’t play nicely, maybe you shouldn’t play at all,” the female Death Eater warned as she watched Sirius thrash about in fascination.
“You ““ Lily started, but James cut her off with a well-aimed spell.
Dropping the Cruciatus Curse for a Shield Charm, the Death Eater deflected the curse.
Amycus groaned from his spot on the floor as he started to come back to consciousness, clutching first his head, then his arm.
James took this distraction as an opportunity for another shot at the woman and fired a Confundus Charm at her.
“He wants us back, Alecto,” Amycus shouted as he shakily stood up, still holding his arm, and promptly Disapparated.
Clutching her arm as well, Alecto stumbled out of the room towards a flight of stairs.
“Quick!” Lily cried as James helped Sirius up. They raced across the room after the pudgy Death Eater and reached the stairs just as she turned the corner at the bottom and went out of sight. Flying down the grey steps, they nearly tripped over each other in their haste to catch the Death Eater. They practically tumbled around the corner at the foot of the stairs and nearly missed being hit by a curse sent behind the running Death Eater’s back. The Confundus Charm was obviously beginning to wear off. Up ahead she vanished into a cave-like place lit by colored neon lights.
Glancing at the sign labeling the room as “The Garden” and noticing the odd formations and dark pathways made by the neon lights, Sirius remarked, “This is the weirdest garden I’ve ever seen. Are those things even supposed to look like plants?”
No one answered him as they pushed through a veil of long yellow plastic strips and spotted the Death Eater escaping up another flight of stairs.
“How many stairways does this wretched museum have?” Sirius puffed.
“Too many,” James answered as he caught the door to the stairs before it closed. “And there had better be only one way out for our sake.”
“Halt!” a policeman called as they came out of the stairway near the Space Centre. He wasn’t talking to them however, but someone just around the corner, who, by the sound of her footsteps, was not halting at all.
“Hey, you kids stop right there!” he called as Lily, James, and Sirius raced after her, past the lavatories and through an emergency exit door. Once their eyes adjusted to the darkness of the night, they spotted Alecto running across Museum Lane towards an alleyway between two buildings.
“Where does she think she’s going?” Lily wondered out loud.
“Not too far at the rate she’s going,” James replied. The three were significantly gaining on their target, and they were almost to her when she ducked into the alleyway. Bursting around the corner, they barely stopped themselves from running into her.
They collectively inhaled as they realized the sight before them. Standing in the alleyway were about half a dozen Death Eaters and none other than Voldemort himself.
“Who are they?” he asked in a rasp.
From his place leaning against the side of one of the buildings, Amycus replied, “Some little brats who thought they could stop us.”
“Dispose of them,” Voldemort commanded.
Eyes wide, Lily stepped backwards with the intention of putting the building’s corner between her and the Death Eaters, but a loud crack from behind her told her that another Death Eater blocked that avenue of escape. Before they knew it, the three of them were backed up against the side of the building, surrounded. Instinctively, Lily grabbed James’ hand as the Death Eaters advance upon them.
James felt Lily’s grip tighten as the Death Eaters lifted their wands, and he drew breath for a curse.
All movement was stopped however, when a flash of white light revealed a tall, thin, silver-bearded wizard.
“Not causing trouble again, are you, Tom?” Dumbledore asked conversationally.
“How many times are you going to forget in your old age, Dumbledore, that I go by Lord Voldemort now,” Voldemort answered, clearly enraged that he had been stopped in his plans.
“I never forget one of my students, Tom. In fact, I believe you have three of my current charges in your custody,” he said, looking pointedly at James, Lily, and Sirius. “I must ask you to release them unharmed.”
“No, I don’t think I will,” Voldemort said caustically. “You see, you’re not the teacher any more Dumbledore. I don’t have to follow your directions if I don’t want to-“
While Voldemort went on, raptly drawing the Death Eaters’ attentions away from their three captors, an idea came to James. Lily still held one of his hands in an iron grip and he gave her a reassuring squeeze as he shot off a wordless spell. He watched as the sapphire spell slipped through the Death Eaters’ ranks and hit its intended target.
Blue flames sprang up at the hem of Voldemort’s robes. It took him half a second to put them out, but that half second was all Dumbledore needed to start an offensive attack against him. At the same time James, Sirius, and Lily attacked the Death Eaters around them.
“Stupefy!” Lily yelled, taking Alecto down. Sidestepping the falling body, she conveniently dodged a spell from another Death Eater. Whipping around, she fired a conjunctive curse at him, which he merely flicked aside. Instinct told her to shield herself so she wordlessly said the Protego Charm just in time for a shower of red sparks to bounce off it. Barely before the air had cleared, she wordlessly fired another spell at him.
Lily almost started laughing when she saw the great oaf strung up by one of his ankles in the air. It was perhaps, the first time she had ever used the Levicorpus spell. The next thing she knew however, she was as stiff as a board and falling flat on her face.
Though she couldn’t see what happened next, she could hear the many feet scuffling around her. It seemed to her that there were a lot more feet walking around than just Voldemort, a handful of Death Eaters, and Dumbledore, James, and Sirius.
She grunted as she felt someone heavy trip over her and hoped it was Amycus or Alecto. Then two pairs of footsteps were running down the street and a few moments later the spell was lifted off her.
“Lily are you alright?” James said from behind her as he helped her up. Taking her hand, he asked in a concerned voice, “You’re not hurt are you?”
Groaning, she rubbed her jaw with her other hand and replied, “I don’t think I broke anything. Just a few bumps and bruises. Did you and Sirius make out alright?”
“Yeah, help got here in time before the Death Eaters could surround us again,” he said, reluctantly letting go of Lily’s hand.
Looking around her, she saw a couple of other witches and wizards talking with Dumbledore and one she had seen earlier in the parking lot examining Sirius for any side-effects of a curse, while three Death Eaters struggled against the bonds that held them together.
Once Sirius was given the o.k. he walked back over to them and said, “It’ll take more than some mangy Death Eaters to take me down. You alright Prongs, Evans?”
“We’re fine,” James smiled, answering for the two of them.
“I certainly hope so,” said Professor Dumbledore as he walked over to them. “That was no picnic in the park. Are you sure you’re not hurt?” he asked once more, carefully scrutinizing each one of them.
They all nodded and he continued, “Very well, then. You’d better be on your way back home. I shall see you again on September 1st.” And with that he gave them a tip of his hat and disappeared.
“He’s right. We had better start heading back to the Leaky Cauldron,” Lily said with a sigh. Glancing at her watch, she realized they’d have to move a whole lot faster than she’d originally thought. “Great, it’s nearly nine. There’s no way we’ll make it there in time.”
“Unless we Apparate there,” James replied, using common-wizard-sense.
“Right,” Lily said, clapping a hand to her head. “Better go to that back alley you two were talking in before you ran into me.”
They nodded, and with a pop, vanished from the street. Reappearing in the narrow alley between the Leaky Cauldron and the shop next to it, they brought with them a small cloud of dust. Despite all their running around the museum, it seemed they were still covered in debris from the Space Centre room. James sneezed and more dust was dislodged from his hair. Laughing, Sirius lightly punched James on the shoulder and watched a puff of dirt rise up in the light of the street lamp. A second later the two boys were scuffling and giving off scads of the powdery debris.
Lily rolled her eyes as she performed some charms to clean herself off and heal some of the burns on her skin. I guess boys will be boys, she thought to herself. Gazing on Sirius and James tumbling around though, she realized that they weren’t boys anymore. Young at heart is more like it. Boys wouldn’t have run into the museum today and fought Death Eaters, much less taken a shot at Voldemort. Now that she thought about it, running into the museum to help people without a second thought seemed like a very un-James-like thing to do in her book.
I guess I underestimated him, Lily thought as she watched the boys break apart and clean themselves up. She shivered suddenly as she thought of their close call with death and confrontation with Voldemort. James noticed and immediately adopted a serious attitude.
“Not your usual run about the town, was it Evans?” he asked. “I’m sorry Voldemort and his cronies had to come and screw everything up.”
“It’s bad enough they ruin everyone’s lives in the Wizarding World,” Sirius commented. “But wreaking havoc with helpless Muggles is just wrong.”
Lily nodded. “I’d heard about incidents from the Daily Prophet, but I never thought I would get caught up in anything they might do. I can’t believe we just came face-to-face with Voldemort himself! That was absolutely terrifying!” she said as she shuddered again.
Though neither would admit to it, both Sirius and James had been scared out of their minds when they had been confronted with the evil wizard. Now they shifted nervously and remained silent as the scenes in the alleyway played back through their minds.
“Come on,” Lily said, breaking up their thoughts. “Petunia and her boyfriend are probably waiting for me, and if I don’t get there soon, I’ll probably have to hear about it for the rest of the trip home.”
Sirius and James nodded and followed her around the corner. Up ahead they saw Petunia and Vernon stiffly facing the street in front of the shop next to the Leaky Cauldron.
“Your late,” Petunia said through clenched teeth. Without giving Lily a chance to say anything in return she turned swiftly and dragged Vernon up the street. Lily sighed and said goodbye to James and Sirius before running after her sister. The two boys in turn headed into the Leaky Cauldron to return to Diagon Alley.
As they silently made their way around the crowded tables to the back of the humming bar, they couldn’t help but overhear the buzzing conversations about the night’s shocking news. Instead of the usually cheery atmosphere however, it was a fearful overtone that had taken over the well-known tavern. As they passed him hurriedly wiping down a table, Tom, the barman, stopped them before they could enter the back room.
“You boys play it safe tonight,” he said, giving them a stern look. “Some horrible things have happened and I wouldn’t want you two caught up in the middle of it. I know you boys don’t mean anything by your tricks and jokes, but all the same, better leave off the pranks for the time being.”
James and Sirius nodded before bidding the friendly barman goodnight. It was unusual for Tom to be so serious with them, but given the circumstances, they understood his demeanor. Tapping the bricks and saying the incantation, the boys returned to Diagon Alley still brooding about the night’s events.
James and Sirius weren’t two block from the bar before they decided to call it a night. The Leaky Cauldron might have been jam-packed with witches and wizards, but the streets outside were almost deserted, with only one or two people scurrying about their late-night duties, and a few shadows lounging about the alleys and street corners.
“This place is giving me the creeps,” Sirius said, running a hand through his long brown hair.
“Yeah,” James agreed. “Let’s get out of here.”
That night, as James laid in bed, going over what had happened during the day, he couldn’t help but think of that moment when Lily had grabbed his hand. Sure, he had been terrified that he was about to be obliterated by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, but the truth was, James had felt like he could do anything, even take on Voldemort himself, when Lily had taken hold of his hand.
He probably would have too if it meant protecting her. Right now he felt on top of the world, though he wasn’t sure how long this world would last with Voldemort causing so much terror. He frowned and turned over on his side. I wish there was some way I could help stop this violence, he thought. It seemed like those witches and wizards with Dumbledore were a group and not just a few random people.... Maybe Sirius and I can find out about them.
He’d have to talk to Dumbledore about it the next time he saw him, but that wouldn’t be for another couple of weeks. Rolling over again, he pushed these thoughts from his mind and focused instead on a certain red-haired damsel he would most definitely be saving from distress any time she needed it.
Stronger Together by Pevensies_Pensieve
Chapter Notes: A night on the town turns disastrous for Lily, James, and Sirius.